1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brush, in particular for the cleaning of toilet bowls, wherein the brush has a handle with a grip at a first end and a plurality of bristles at a second end.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art
In order to ensure that toilet bowls will not be hotbeds for spores and bacteria, a number of toilet cleaners have been put on the market, the effective chemicals of which are acid salts, e.g. hydrogen-sulfites, or tensides. However, acid sewage impair the biological phase of sewage purification plants, whereas tensides are hardly decomposed by microorganisms.
Due to the drawbacks mentioned, only mechanical means are suitable for removing dirt from toilet bowls which may be a hotbed for spores and bacteria. However, a large part of customary brushes is suitable only to clean the areas of the toilet bowls which are visible from the outside.
In addition, a brush for cleaning of toilet bowls is known from the German printed patent document DE 43 45 118, which brush consists of a handle having a grip at its one end and a bristle section at its other end. The first part of the bristle section is in alignment with the handle, whereas its other part is bent so that these two parts form an acute angle.
A bendable toilet-bowl brush is known from the German printed patent document G 92 03 566.3, wherein the handle of the brush is formed by an upper part and by a lower part, wherein the upper part and the lower part can be connected to each other, and can be coupled with an elastic element. The German Petit Patent DE-G 92 03 566.3 teaches a bendable toilet brush with an exchangeable brush head. A helical spring is employed which is covered with folding rubber. The presence of folding rubber or of a helical spring is very unhygienic, because toilet bowl residues like hair and sanitary pads can attach to the uneven surfaces and slots result in an implement becoming quickly unattractive.
The German Petit Patent DE-G 295 20 540 U1 to Radczimanowski teaches an electrically operated toilet brush with a removable flexible brush head. The reference proposes to employ an electric drive motor to turn and rotate the brush head.
A manual device for the cleaning of toilet bowls is taught in the German printed patent document No. DE 94 16 481 U1. The manual device is comprised of a brush body provided with a handgrip, formed by a rod-like body. The rod-like body exhibits a bendable part just above the brush body. This tool again employs a helical spring according to FIG. 3. FIG. 1 shows the employment of an elastic pin, which has about the same length as the total diameter width of the brush head. As shown in FIG. 2, the pin can bend by angles of 70 degrees and allows substantial vibrations of the brush head. Such vibrations can lead to undesired splashing of dirty water residues, which is clearly undesirable with a toilet brush.